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Healthy Communities — November 4, 2011

This week in outrageous eating, Burger King Japan debuts a pizza-sized hamburger! The burger comes in two flavors, Fresh Avocado and Cheese Nacho, or you can get the burger in a party set with sides and drinks for four.

Resources

The National Council on Aging recently launched a national public-facing page for the Stanford Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, which we call Living Well with Chronic Conditions here in Oregon.

Advancing the Movement announced the launch of the beta version of the Community Commons suite of tools and resources. The Commons will allow users to quickly find and share data, maps, stories, videos and other information about community-related prevention and health programs. There are hundreds of searchable profiles of community initiatives with promising strategies and stories.

New Model Wellness Policies for child care and before/after school settings from Washoe County’s CHART Team (a 2010 ACHIEVE Community).

The Health Communicator’s Social Media Toolkit 2nd Edition is a resource designed to provide partners with guidance and to share CDC’s lessons learned in integrating social media into health campaigns. The second edition is now available with additional information on developing trends in social media, best practices and a campaign example highlighting Vital Signs, a monthly program that focuses on a single, important health topic that provides a “call to action” for different audiences.

New Diabetes and Tobacco Research Briefs highlight findings from the 2010 National Profile of Local Health Departments and give a comprehensive picture of Local Health Department sructures, workforce, financing, governance, activities and services.

Articles and Reports

Healthier Americans for a Healthier Economy, Trust for America’s Health, November 2011 This report features six case studies focused on the relationship between health and economic development. The report examines how health affects the ability of states, cities and towns to attract and retain employers, and how workplace and community wellness programs help improve productivity and reduce health spending.

A Closer Look at Health Care Disparities, Health Affairs, November 2011 The federal government says racial and ethnic minorities are less likely to get the preventive care they need to stay healthy, more likely to suffer from serious illness, and re less likely to have access to quality health care. Health Affairs examines those disparities from a number of perspectives. Featured articles include:

Workplaces Feel the Impact of Obesity, NPR, October 27, 2011 From cubicle farms to auto factories, accommodating larger and heavier employees has become a fact of life. Studies estimate the total cost of obesity to U.S. employers — including lost productivity—at $73 billion a year. But that figure doesn’t include some of the smaller ways the workplace is adapting.

Meet Big Soda: As Bad as Big Tobacco, TIME, October 24, 2011 A proposed tax on sugar-sweetened beverages has been under consideration by almost 20 states or cities in the US. Efforts to combat soda consumption are similar to those efforts to reduce tobacco use nationwide.

School Lunch Proposals Set Off a Dispute, New York Times, November 2, 2011 The government has some thoughts on how to make the federally financed school lunch program more nutritious: A quarter-cup of tomato paste on pizza will no longer be considered a vegetable. Cut back on potatoes and add more fresh peaches, apples, spinach and broccoli. And hold the salt.

Obesity Fuels Custody Fights, Wall Street Journal, October 29, 2011 Ex-Spouses hurl accusations in court about their kids’ nutrition and exercise. The nation’s waistline is expanding, and so too is the role of obesity in child-custody battles in the US.